Tag Archives: Dominic Sena

Rogue agent Gabriel Shear (John Travolta) is determined to get his mitts on $9 billion stashed in a secret Drug Enforcement Administration account. He wants the cash to fight terrorism, but lacks the computer skills necessary to hack into the government mainframe. Enter Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman), a n’er-do-well encryption expert who can log into anything.

Swordfish definitely has too much plot for one movie, maybe also two movies. The director Dominic Sena, who is also known for directing Gone in 60 Seconds, is known for his little or no plot but has many gratuitous car chases, but with Swordfish he obviously doesn’t abandon the plot one bit.

The problem with this film is that the logic and the plot are out-of-this world. We can’t decide who’s the good guys and who’s the bad guys, too many times and we can’t just think in a movie that is all about war against terrorism. The storyline here as well is not very clear and the twist and turns are not bright and at times can be a little bit predictable.Also, when will Hollywood find out that computer typing scenes are just not that all exciting.

The film has many jumbled scenes, that just don’t feel like they belong in the movie at all. There are scenes that belong but there are too many that just don’t seem like they belong at all. Add a very confusing plot and a bunch of scenes that don’t belong and you just have a huge film of incoherence.

Though this film is very dumb it is not boring. Many of the action scenes are there and very cool to watch and I actually found myself amazed by some of the over-the-top action sequences other than confused. Special effects in movies get so much better every year and this movie shows how you can use those special effects to your advantage. Also, much of the script is very ironic and at times very comical if it doesn’t even fit in with the scenes.

Acting in this movie is highly OK. Halle Berry is not in this film much but does show she is great at being a total tease and very distracting to the others and the viewers themselves. John Travolta, is really going back to his Vincent Vega character from Pulp Fiction, but is still convincing and makes us believe in him. Hugh Jackman is also good in this film and shows a lot of promise as a actor and tries anything he can to sell this script. May I mention this is Halle Berry’s first nude scene and although many will go crazy, it seems really forced and doesn’t really match in with the story at all.

Consensus: Swordfish is as brain dead as its name. Its features an incoherent plot, random scenes, and overall just doesn’t have a noticeable sense of style, but is not boring.